I am Number Four
by Angel1213
Summary: Bet you've never seen this before. It's a Rinnegan Naruto story...without him spamming shinra tensei EVERY five seconds. You may or may not like it, but I hope you do. Somewhat-dark, conflicted Naruto
1. Chapter 1

**Okay, so I'm thinking of a new kind of story, something that I actually haven't seen yet in all of my travels throughout the fan-fiction world**

**This story was inspired by the move: "I am Number Four", in which an alien is being hunted by other aliens for various reasons of which I never really cared about enough to remember; the point is, my new project is going to be like that, but based on the six paths: Naraka, Preta, Animal, Human, Deva, and Asura.**

**Before any of you bother asking, no, Naruto will not be the Deva path, but that's about all I'm going to be disclosing.**

**Each path will be a different person, some more benign than others, whereas one of them may be out to kill all of them, and take their power.**

**I've already gotten too into it, considering that I'm trying not to give out any spoilers.**

**Well, Let's get this show on the road!**

* * *

**I don't own Naruto; if I owned Naruto, I'd kill off Sakura and burn his jumpsuits...**

* * *

It was a dark and stormy night, seemingly foreshadowing of the dreadful things to come.

A blonde man, in his twenties held his wife to him as they played with their two week old child. The adorable blonde baby gurgled playfully as his loving mother jostled him around on her knee, whispering loving, comforting words into his oblivious ears.

"My precious Naruto-chan" The woman whispered. She is Kushina Uzamaki, an ex-Anbu captain of the Hidden Leaf villiage, on vacation with her husband, and Hokage: Minato Namikaze to celebrate the birth of their baby boy: Naruto Uzamaki Namikaze.

From the time Kushina had been pregnant, the Great Toad Elder had predicted many great things from her child, and they were so happy to be able to see him grow up. How fortunate that a 40 story tall demon fox spirit hadn't appeared out of nowhere to crush the village that they loved so dearly.

The baby looked up at his parents with innocent, blue eyes that seemed to radiate mirth and appeal. He continued to bask in their unconditioned love when the door was suddenly blasted off its hinges, startling the two parents, and making Naruto cry softly.

A man in a black robe with red clouds stared at them for a moment, before looking at the child in their arms; his purple, rippled eyes narrowing at the child's happy face.

"Give me the boy." Was all he said, but that was all he needed. No other words would've elicited a better reaction. Minato immediately stood up, a kunai in his hand faster than most could blink.

"What do you want with my son?" He asked threateningly. There was no way he'd simply give this man his child.

The cloaked man glared at Minato, his eyes glowing with power. "I won't say it again: give me the boy, or die." He spoke coldly.

Minato rushed foward at speeds no normal man should be able to track, intent on ending things swiftly before anything could escalate, but was blasted away by some unknown force.

The father of the baby flew through the wall at insane speeds, smashing into the support beams that held the house up with a sickening crack of his shoulder blade, and the house came tumbling down on him. Kushina screamed, fearing for her husband's safety, but was also blasted away, out of the house and onto the cold, wet floor, Naruto still in her grasp.

"I warned you." Was all the man said before he rushed in at speeds equal to, if not greater than Minato's and lashing out with a black bar from his sleeve. The new mother barely evaded the first two strikes, and was forced to block the last one; her body suddenly stopped responding to her, and she found herself incapable of channeling chakra, or even moving much.

The man swung the sharpened bar again, intent on ending her life, but was blocked by none other than Minato, who's shoulder was bleeding and popped out of its socket, but otherwise fine. "Kushina, take Naruto and run." He said sternly.

She looked conflicted for a moment, but finally gave up. "Don't die." Was all she managed to croak out before she had forced herself to run away with a crying Naruto in her grasp.

Watching her go, Minato felt slightly comforted, and turned to face the unknown assailant. "I don't know who you are, or why you want my son, but none of that matters. What matters is that you're threatening the lives of my family...and I won't let you get away with that." he spoke evenly before flying at the mysterious man at incredible speeds, and engaging him in the most difficult battle of his life.

* * *

Kushina ran for all she was worth. Once she'd got Naruto to Konoha, she'd go back and help Minato fight off the assailant.

At least, that's what she would've thought if not for the blade sticking out of her chest. She coughed up blood, looking back to see the same mysterious man, his cloak torn and bleeding heavily, but still standing upright with no signs of exaustion. She felt tears well up in her eyes when she saw the body of Minato still in the man's grasp; his chest had been crushed by that same strange force, and his eyes were lifeless.

As she fell to the ground, holding her baby tightly to her for all she was worth, she heard the thump that came from Minato's corpse as it landed right next to her. The battle hadn't lasted long, as the killing blow was his only injury aside from his shoulder.

"He fought well." The man said to her, and she would've thrown herself at him in rage had she been able to feel her body at all. Using what strength she had left, she turned to Naruto -still in her grasp- and said "I love you." before she too died.

The baby cried out, noticing the lack of warmth that had once been there and looked to the murderer of his parents, tears staining his cheeks.

The man didn't bat an eyelash and simply turned away. The boy's eyes had yet to develop. The whole scuffle was a waste. Oh well; he had patience in spades.

As the man walked away from the now-sobbing baby, he muttered two words. "Know Pain."


	2. Clash! Naruto vs Sasuke!

**Hey there! Okay, I figured "I'm bored, I'll try out another chapter for my newest project!" And so I am.**

**No worries, I'll be updating my next story some time later, but for now...This story gets my attention**

* * *

About five years later

A five year old Naruto Uzamaki walked through the village of Konoha at a slow pace. As usual, he was lonely, and although people would smile at him, and would offer him food or candy on occasion, no one ever really acknowledged him.

He was the deceased Fourth Hokage's son, and that was all people saw him as. He hated it.

Though there were some people who were warry of his eyes, of course. Quite a few feared whomever was strong enough to kill both Kushina Uzamaki, -ex-Anbu commander-, and Minato Namikaze -one of the strongest people of his time- in a single day, and thus, distanced themselves from him, not wanting to be that man's next victim.

His ripple-like, frost blue eyes looked around and noticed something. On a nearby training ground, three genin were learning to tree climb, taught by their ever-patient sensei. He was able to recognize the chakra that permeated throughout their bodies and see where it traveled to, and how much traveled. It was incredible!

"So cool." Was all he said, his voice although like soft bell chimes, was somewhat hoarse from not being used in a while. -The last time he had recalled speaking to anyone was when the old man had visited a week ago.

He kept on walking at a steady pace to the next training grounds, hoping it'd be free.

It was uneventful, but when he got there, he immediately walked to the nearest tree, intent on doing what those aspiring genin had been trying to do. Without even falling once, he began practicing like he had seen the young genin doing and dashed up the side of the tree, covering twenty feet on the tree on his first try. His next try brought him up to fifty feet up the tree, and in another six tries, he had managed to actually hit the top of the tree and was staring down at the entire village, awestruck.

The Hokage, who had been watching him from his crystal ball was trying to pick his jaw off the floor. The kid was a genius.

* * *

Young Naruto Namikaze had continued with his practices, increasing his already naturally huge chakra stores with the tree climbing exercise until the Hokage: Hiruzen Sarutobi had decided to give him a nudge in the right direction, and decided to show him the water walking exercise on a visit one day. Just like the tree climbing exercise, Naruto had taken to it like a fish to water.

Hoping to even further test the young boy's genius, he showed the boy a scroll of the fireball jutsu, a C-rank technique, hoping to gauge the boy's learning ability. The child had been able to analyze the jutsu at a level that left even he, the God of Shinobi gaping like a fish, and had managed to learn the jutsu in just one day -and managed to augment the jutsu to new heights in under a week-.

It was incredible what the young boy was able to do. His eyes seemed to catch things that not even the famed sharingan could, and he was smart enough to analyze the situations, and the tools given to him to solve almost any problem that came his way; But it was not until young Naruto's sixth birthday that Hiruzen had truly realized Naruto's potential.

**Naruto's sixth birthday**

Naruto had been in Hiruzen's desk while he was away, looking at things he probably shouldn't have been looking at when he came across a button. Curiosity compelling him, he pressed the strange button, and to his suprise, the wall seemed to open up. Going down the strange passageway, he came across a virtual gold mine of scrolls. It was the personal collection of the third Hokage.

Walking along the long hall, one specific scroll had caught his eye. It had a pretty design on it and read the kanji for _Summon__, _intriguing the young Namikaze. ignoring all of the other scrolls, he immediately moved over to that one, and with a tentative movement, had removed it from its extravagant rack and peeled it open. Ignoring the feeling that he probably shouldn't even be touching it, he opened it up and his eyes widened at the feeling that washed through him. The seals seemed so...natural.

Naruto's ripple-like eyes narrowed in concentration as he built up his chakra and performed the seals for the summoning jutsu, but nothing happened. For a moment, he looked displeased, but then his eyes widened and he collapsed.

* * *

Naruto awakened to find himself in a void of millions of colors. So many tints and shades, he noticed.

But what interested Naruto the most was the transparent man that stood in front of him. The man, he noticed, had the same eyes as him and gave him a kind smile. "Hello young Naruto." He said pleasantly.

"Uh, hi." The young Namikaze replied dumbly, eliciting a chuckle from the strange man.

"I am the one you know as the "Sage of the Six Paths."" He responded, earning wide-eyes and a gasp from the young orphan. "And you are one of my six descendants." This earned a cynical look from the young boy. "What? We have the same eyes don't we?" he asked, chuckling as realization dawned on the child.

"Well that explains quite a bit about my life." He mumbled, mostly to himself, though the Sage heard him but didn't say anything about it.

The sage looked him in the eyes purposely. "Listen, Naruto-kun. There are five others with eyes like yours. Together, you six make up the six paths: Deva, Human, Preta, Animal, Naraka, and Asura." He stated, getting another cynical look from the young, but perceptive boy.

"What do you expect me to do with this information?" He asked the Sage to which he responded "Survive."

And with that, he was enveloped in a brilliant light and was dragged back to the real world.

* * *

Young Naruto awoke to see the aged Hokage fussing over him, a medic checking him over.

"Thank kami he's awake." The medic nin muttered to herself, and the Hokage breathed a sigh of relief before his smile turned into an angry scowl and he leveled a vehement glare onto the young boy. "What do you think you're doing in this room?" He asked, barely holding onto his temper at the young boy for breaking into his jutsu vault. "You could've killed yourself!" He near yelled.

Naruto's dull eyes looked to the old man, apparently bored of the lecture he was about to receive. "Sorry, but if you really don't want anyone getting into here, you should hide it better." he said matter'o factly, getting a surprised look from the Hokage. "Well, I guess you're right about that." He said.

Deciding not to tell the old man about his discovery, just because he really didn't feel like it, Naruto left, immediately to the library to learn more of the sage.

* * *

Naruto had learned one thing later on that day. He was linked to all summons. He could summon any beast from an army of the strongest of creatures, handpicked by the Sage himself, and they would obey him without question. He also learned that the summons, which had eyes exactly like his -down to the right shade of blue- would show him what they saw unconsciously (he can see through their eyes, as well as his own).

In the next six years that had passed for young Naruto, he had joined the ninja academy, mastering the three necessary jutsu and then getting back onto his own endeavors to master his summoning. The Namikaze had taken the Sage's words to heart and had done his best to master fighting alongside every single summon, and then done what he could to master the use of a sword, but the Hokage's sway in his life was limited, and he could not simply tell a master of the art to train the boy.

The aged Hokage watched Naruto walk into the academy from his crystal ball. The boy stood at 5'4 with long blonde hair with bangs that framed his face. He had on black sandals that came up to his knee and went into his dark blue pants (think the pants Sasuke wears in shippuuden, sash, and bow as well, except the bow is grey instead of purple) and a grey V-neck shirt and black wrist guards. This was mostly covered by a dark red robe that was tan on the inside, and hooded (think Edo tensei Itachi from the manga). He also had on a red necklace (the necklace that the sage of the six paths wore). Finally, his finger and toe nails were painted a dark blue, something that confused the boys of his age, though no one questioned it since the boy was generally nice to everyone, if not a little quiet. He usually kept to himself, and at times, people thought him as strange because of his eyes, or because he was the son of the Fourth, but usually just went by Uzamaki, since it was less prestigious, and he disliked the attention that came with his father's last name.

The chunnin sensei Iruka was holding the genin test in which the students had to various things to earn enough points. The very first test was weapons; Iruka gave the young academy students shuriken/kunai to throw at the target. Going down the list from last names A-Z, Iruka eventually hit Sasuke Uchiha, one of his best students.

The arrogant boy grabbed the weapons and stood ready about fifteen feet from the targets. With a "hn", he threw them all expertly, and hit nine out of ten of the targets dead center, the last one less than an inch off. Turning back, he looked at Naruto and spoke. "Beat that."

Naruto -dull eyes on the boy- simply walked past the Uchiha, not paying him any mind, and greatly angering Sasuke. Grabbing the tools given to him, and not one to show off, Naruto simply threw them all with a flick of his wrist, hitting all ten of the targets dead center. Not sparing a glance at the shocked boy, he walked past him without a word, honestly not caring about what the arrogant Uchiha thought of his latest success.

Sasuke leveled a glare at the uncaring Namikaze for being better than him at something. 'I'll beat him when we spar' He thought.

* * *

**Behind the Academy**

The students stood around a medium sized ring meant to contain two competitors. A few students were nursing bruises/scratches as the next two went up. Naruto Uzamaki and Sasuke Uchiha.

"Hn, this time, I'll beat you Uzamaki." He sneered.

Naruto's dull, frost blue eyes leveled on him, rippled eyes uncaring. "Okay." Was all he said, somehow still managing to infuriate the Uchiha who wanted to believe among all else that he was better than the boy standing in front of him.

Hearing Iruka shout to begin, Sasuke ran at Naruto full speed, intent on catching him off guard. But as always, those infuriatingly calm eyes caught his every movement, and Naruto reacted accordingly, dodging and countering Sasuke's assault. It very quickly became apparent who was better. For every punch Sasuke threw, he'd miss, and Naruto would land several more. Growing extremely angry, Sasuke feinted a punch, but then spun into a roundhouse, but hit nothing but air. Seeing a shadow growing more profound by the second, he looked up to see a foot coming down to his skull. Barely managing to dodge it, it left spiderweb cracks in the ground and threw sasuke off balance. The blonde's hands blurred out of sight and struck the Uchiha more times than anyone could count.

Sasuke was doubled over by a palm strike to the chest that forced him over Naruto's shoulder, coughing up blood and saliva. Clutching Naruto's sleeve for support as his lungs throbbed violently.

Naruto gave him a moment to recollect himself, but then walked away, still uncaring of the boy who called himself his rival. "Good match Sasuke-san." He said politely, earning a glare from Sasuke. Who was only just recovering.

* * *

**Inside the Academy**

The young genin wannabes were sitting at desks now. Iruka was explaining the jutsu portion of the test.

"Alright children! The jutsu portion will consist of the substitution, transformation, and clone jutsus. You'll get thirty three on the substitution and transformation portions, and a thirty four on the clone jutsu, so I hope you studied hard!" He said, before wishing his students luck and begining the test.

Some kids came out empty handed, but all of the students that had come from clans, and Sakura had passed and been given their Konoha headband. Sasuke walked out, nose in the air, and then glared at Naruto who was walking past him to complete the test, and not even a minute and a half later, he too had a headband, though it was simply placed in his equipment pouch.

"Ha! You dobe, you failed didn't you!" Sasuke asked, grinning at the boy's "failure", but then pounding his table in rage when Naruto showed it to him and then walked away.

After a few more people were called, -ending with Ino Yamanaka- Iruka gave some crappy speech about his pride in his students and everybody left.

* * *

From the Hokage's tower, many jounin stood around Hiruzen's table, watching through the crystal ball.

"So? What do you think?" The old man asked, sending everyone into a frenzy, almost all of them asking for the Uzamaki.

"Sir, he's incredible! I've never seen that level of taijutsu in any fresh academy student! And he's so calm and quiet, a direct contrast to all of the other students! One Kurenai Yuhi said, awed by the boy's skill.

Kakashi had actually closed his book and looked at the Hokage. "Hokage-sama, if I may: the boy is the son of my sensei. I can teach him better than anyone else, and the Uchiha seems to strive harder when he sees young Naruto. If you'll allow me to train them, I'll do my absolute best to train them." He said with confidence.

Hiruzen had to give him that point, and after a few minutes of thinking allowed Kakashi the privilege of teaching the class' best students.

* * *

One Uzamaki Naruto walked throughout the streets, saying hello to the people who looked at him, and smiling at the young children who were playing ninja. He had a lot to prepare for. He just hoped his teacher wasn't a lazy prick.

* * *

**Okay, done, yay, great, awesome, amazing, beautiful, exemplary, etc, etc.**

**I hope you enjoyed the chapter.**

**Next chapter: Naruto Meets His Match! **


	3. Hello Scarecrow

**Okay guys, chapter three is out**

**Normally, I'd do some big introduction, but I'm not doing it today so...I'm not (=D)**

**Anyways, let's get right on to it!**

**(I used to own Naruto...then I woke up)**

* * *

The kids who had passed the genin exam were sitting in their ex-homeroom, chatting away to their just recently assigned teammates. Well, all except for team-7. Naruto sat in a seat next to Sasuke, his dull, frost-blue eyes staring into the wall as jounin senseis came in to pick up their new teams. Ones by one, teams started to get retrieved, and eventually, it was only an angry Sasuke, an uncaring Naruto, and an ecstatic Sakura, thanking her lucky stars for getting the most attractive boys of her age group (sigh...fangirls)

Sasuke had taken to glaring into the back of Naruto's head. It seemed he'd been doing that far more often lately. After about three minutes of this, Naruto finally decided to simply address it.

"Sasuke-san, I know the back of my head is the most beautiful thing to you, but if you keep staring, my head might melt." He said stoically, only causing Sasuke to glare harder. "Hn." Was his only reply, to which Naruto sarcastically remarked "How vocal."

At that point, Sasuke just got really pissed for no reason and tackled Naruto off of his seat.

"Are you mocking me!" He asked dangerously, his hand itching to grab a kunai and stab the blonde in those uncaring eyes. 'How dare he look at me with those eyes!' were his thoughts as he opted to raise his fist, ready to punch him with all of his might, ignoring the screaming of a frightened Sakura.

Naruto's eyes seemed to widen with suprise for only a moment before a small grin played on his usually blank face. "Yes." Was his only reply, but that was enough, and Sasuke started wailing on him, punching him for all he was worth, but in his blind rage, hadn't managed to catch the discreet substitution;so it was no suprise when he hissed in pain from the numerous splinters in his fist.

This was the sight that Kakashi Hatake walked into, but before he could voice anything, Naruto had already set his gaze on him, unnerving the jounin, who suddenly felt the urge to cradle his book.

"Hatake-san, you have left us here for over two and a half hours." He stated, his eyes narrowed in annoyance.

To this, Kakashi smiled, his eye forming a "U" as the only sign of this. "Sorry, I got lost on the road of life." he said casually, earning another annoyed look from Naruto. "If you, a jounin is dumb enough to follow a path that he's never been on, or often get lost on without some form of directions, you honestly don't deserve that vest of yours." He said coldly, stunning Kakashi, who had never actually had his excuses questioned. "Make no mistake, I will be filing a complaint. If you are tardy again without a legitimate reason, I will be taking this to the Hokage to consult your demotion to chuunin. Then perhaps you won't be finding yourself so late eh?" he asked, his frosty eyes piercing into Kakashi's lone, shocked one. "And you look like a scarecrow." He pointed out, eliciting a sweatdrop from everyone.

"Well, I'll keep that in mind." Kakashi said, eye-smiling yet again, but on the inside crying to himself about being put in his place by a genin.

* * *

**(The next day)**

Team seven stood in front of a suprisingly on-time Kakashi. It seemed he had actually taken Naruto seriously and had managed to get there at a decent time.

"So our goal is to get the bells?" Naruto only half asked to confirm it for his teammates.

"Yep." Was all Kakashi stated. "Begin!"

**(Begin fight scene)**

The second those words left his mouth, Naruto's hands twitched, and several shuriken were flying at Kakashi. Thinking fast, Kakashi jumped out of the way, pulling out a kunai and blocking the second wave of shuriken. Upon landing, he found himself face to face with those cold, frosty eyes that only Naruto could possess.

The two exchanged blows on each other, trying to get the upper hand, until Naruto realized he was outclassed and jumped back, an exploding tag covering his escape.

Kakashi found himself unable to pinpoint the blonde's location, and hastily brought his guard up to deflect the accurately thrown kunai that would've impaled his head. Kakashi sent out a wave of chakra, getting rid of the obscuring smoke, only to find himself face-to-face with a giant crab with eyes like Naruto's. It had large, heavy claws that had a hole in the inside of each. He very quickly learned what they were there for when a blast of water shot out of its pincers, obliterating the entire body of the tree behind him.

Kakashi was forced on the retreat as the claws began to spin rapidly, making the water more dense, and augmenting its cutting prowess, which was proven when it carved through solid stone with no pause as it chased him around the field. Tiring of dodging, Kakashi sent of a fire ball jutsu at the crab, only for a large panda statue, crafted from some kind of metal with the same eyes as Naruto and the crab poofed in front of the aforementioned characters, protecting the two from the flames. As it disappeared, the water shot on again, almost catching the surprised Kakashi. Though able to dodge it, it ripped through his vest; Kakashi was incapable of worrying about that however, as a large, ripple-eyed bird with a hooked, heavy beak came crashing down where he once was.

Kakashi brought a kunai up to block the lightning fast strikes of Naruto, who seemed intent on keeping the jounin on the defensive. Locking Kakashi in a power struggle, Naruto's free hand went into the tiger seal, and a bulky bull with eyes similar to all of the previous summons appeared at his side, ramming into the cycloptic jounin and blasting him away with the force of a wrecking ball.

Kakashi's crumpled form rolled across the floor before shifting into a crushed log, the real Kakashi in a nearby tree looking on in shock. 'That would've killed me.' He realized as he noticed Naruto begin to move yet again.

Undeterred by his most recent failure, Naruto began to form seals at a rapid pace, his eyes closed in concentration. Suddenly, he spun around and a giant fireball was flying at Kakashi's hidden form, causing his lone eye to widen as he jumped away, only to be impaled upon the beak of the bird summon that had not yet returned to the summoning world. Once again, he shifted into a splintered log.

The young blonde jumped into the air, evading the hand of Kakashi, who had come from underground.

Spinning around quickly, Naruto tossed a kunai at the jounin who blocked it with ease, before noticing the smoke bomb attached to it. Jumping out of the smoke, Kakashi looked around, only to find no sight of the boy who he had deemed: too good to be a fresh genin.

Extending is senses, Kakashi looked far and wide for the ever elusive Naruto. Sensing something behind him, he spun and quickly threw a kunai, impaling a log with a paper bomb attached to it.

Jumping away from the hazard, Kakashi was forced to evade a charge from the bull.

Landing on the water, he quickly realized his mistake. Ten ripple-eyed sharks surrounded him, glaring menacingly.

Kakashi didn't expect them to suddenly start shooting boiling water from their mouths, and though he evaded the real danger, the searing hot water still hurt like hell.

Kakashi decided that the boy was not to be underestimated, and immediately sent a volley of shuriken at Naruto, who stood a couple of yards away from him.

Undeterred, Naruto summoned the same panda from before, deflecting the weapons, and jumping on its head, began seals at an insane pace. 'I'm almost out of chakra. I hope this works.' He thought to himself as he cast his jutsu._  
_

**"Wind Style: Vacuum Bullet."** He said, shooting a blast of compressed air at the water in front of Kakashi, blinding him.

Fortunately for Naruto, his rinnegan allowed him to see through most surfaces, and thus, he could see perfectly, allowing him to cast his final jutsu.

**"Water Style: Water Dragon Jutsu." **He mumbled. With that, a large, glowing, blue dragon with gold eyes formed above Kakashi, who caught it at the last moment, and was unable to evade the full brunt of it.

It slammed into his right leg, sending him spiraling into a tree.

As he spun, Naruto took aim and threw a senbon, pinning the bells to a branch that he immediately jumped to, retrieving them.

Kakashi looked up, -slightly dazed- to see Naruto take off in the trees.

* * *

"Look, we have to work together, the point of the test is teamwork." Naruto said to a vehement Sasuke, who was rather vocal about his dislike of the situation.

"Hn." He sneered at Naruto. "I'd rather fail than work with you Uzamaki." He said angrily.

Naruto's cold eyes bore into his before he disappeared from Sasuke's line of sight. When he reappeared, his fist was digging into the Uchiha's stomach.

Sasuke's eyes grew wide as he began gasping for air, falling to the ground with a thud.

"Listen Uchiha, I don't like you, and you don't like me, but none of that matters now. I'm not gonna fail because you're too much of a bitch to get over an academy grudge. Now get up and help me find Sakura, or I'll remind you why you're second best." Naruto said dangerously, causing the Uchiha to gulp in fear and scramble to his feet.**  
**

Very few had ever seen Naruto actually show emotion, but everyone knew that if you pissed him off, the best thing to do was to just back down. Even Sasuke wasn't crazy enough to antagonize him when angered.

Quickly finding Sakura, who had hidden in some bushes, they recruited her, and began to come up with a plan.

"Okay, we already have the bells." Naruto said, giving each of them one, and ignoring their questioning glances. "But he won't actually pass us unless he sees we're capable of working together, which is why he tried so hard to pit us against each other.

The other two nodded, and they began to speak in whispers.

* * *

Kakashi sat on the memorial stone waiting for his gennin to do something. 'I wonder if they've figured it out by now.' He thought to himself before swiftly catching two shuriken out of the air. 'That answers my question.'

Sakura jumped out from her cover, throwing several kunai at the jounin who effortlessly dodged them, only to have to substitute himself to avoid being roasted by a fireball sent by Sasuke.

Kakashi burst from the ground, grabbing the Uchiha's leg, and pulling him under, but Sasuke poofed away, signaling him to be one of Naruto's shadow clones disguised as Sasuke.

Realizing this, Kakashi drew several shuriken and intercepted a volley of kunai that would've turned him into a pincushion only to sense someone behind him. Turning around and bringing his arms up, he managed to block a kick from Naruto that sent him skidding back.

Sasuke sent a fireball jutsu at him, forcing him to jump away yet again, but Naruto clapped his hands together and summoned a ripple-eyed gorilla that threw an earth shattering punch at Kakashi, who only barely dodged it, but couldn't evade the punch to the face from Sasuke.

Kakashi easily recovered, landing on his feet, and almost didn't sense Naruto who came up behind him and slit his throat, causing him to turn into a log.

Kakashi appeared in front of them all.

"I didn't think you'd actually figure it out." He said, eye smiling at the three.

"Naruto figured it out." Sakura said to the jounin causing him to turn his attention to Naruto, who was simply staring at him, waiting for his verdict.

"Well, since my cute little gennin figured out my test, that means...you pass." He said, getting a cheer from Sakura, a small smile from Sasuke, and a satisfied look from Naruto.

Kakashi gave them an apraising look. "We start missions tomorrow." He said, before leaving in a puff of smoke.

Sakura turned to ask Sasuke on a date, but he was already leaving. She turned to talk to Naruto but he was already gone.

* * *

Naruto walked into his apartment and abruptly collapsed. Now in the safety of his home, he allowed himself a little weakness.

That fight had taken quite a lot out of him.

Kakashi truly was a powerful shinobi, but he'd be stronger. He vowed to himself.

Pulling himself to his feet, he walked to the bathroom to take a shower.

* * *

Kakshi stood in front of the Hokage, who was currently checking over the bruises, blisters, and minor cuts Kakashi had recieved.

"Naruto did this to you?" Hiruzen asked the jounin, eliciting a nod.

"I knew he'd be strong, but I didn't expect him to be **that **strong." He said, wincing as Hiruzen gave him a disappointed look. "You never underestimate your opponent, no matter who they are." The aged Hokage told him.

Kakashi nodded, now looking out the window. 'Sensei, you'd be proud.'

* * *

**AND CUT.**

**Sorry about not updating for so long, but I've had a few troubles with internet, which kept going on and off, causing me to lose data as I was typing several times.**

**Hopefully this won't happen again.**

**See you next time!**


	4. A Question

**Hey guy's what's up? Unfortunately, this is not a chapter. The real chapter will be up in the next few days, and I think you'll be pleasantly surprised with it.**

**Sadly, I won't be able to finish the chapter itself until I establish something. I will be doing a single pairing. No yaoi. Anyone that asks for it will be killed with fire. I kid the readers, but regardless, I have been thinking of doing a female Haku pairing, since I hardly ever see good ones nowadays.**

**Give me a comment letting me know what you think of it. If you don't like it, that's perfectly fine, but don't ask me to do:**

**Sakura (I hate her)**

**Hinata (Overused)**

**Kurenai, Anko, Tsunade, and Shizune (They're too old for him)**

**Ino (She's as annoying as Sakura)**

**That's all I'm really against. I'd prefer to do a fem-Haku pairing, but if I get enough reviews against it, I might be convinced to change my mind.**

**I will NOT be doing a Harem, so don't bother asking. Harems are annoyingly difficult to maintain, and authors occasionally forget about characters, causing everything to screw up.**

**Thanks for reading this. Leave a review letting me know what you think, and the chapter should be finished in the next few days.**

**Bye =^.^=**


	5. Wave Arc Part 1

**Hello there, and welcome to chapter four of I am Number Four.**

**Here's our host, Angel!**

**Me: Hey all, how's it going, drinking milk? Great, beautiful, amazing, keep it up**

**And here's his co-host Naruto Uzamaki!**

**Me: Which one?**

**Badass one**

**Me: Great, I love it.**

**Naruto: So, what the fuck are we doing?**

**Me: That's a good question, (looks to thin air) what the fuck are we doing?**

**You're hosting the Author's Note!**

**Me: Great, so guys, I'm just gonna let you know that now that summer has started, Imma be writing a lot more than before, so you can expect chapters to come in more quickly. I'm also gonna be upping the chapter length considerably, cuz no one likes a short as hell chapter after over a month of nothing.**

**Naruto: Damn right! How am I supposed to be a badass if you don't give me the opportunity?**

**Me: Fair enough, no worries though, I intend to correct that.**

**Naruto: Will I get sunglasses?**

**Me: You have an awesome sword, isn't that enough?**

**Naruto: I have a sword?**

**Me: Crap, I really did forget alot**

**ON WITH THE STORY**

* * *

**I do not own Naruto**

* * *

The following weeks were horrible for team seven. Being fresh genin, they were forced to do the bane of any ninja's existence: D-rank missions.

Of course, it didn't really help that upon passing, the team had went straight to hell in the fact that Sasuke did everything he possibly could to antagonize Naruto, -who just ignored him with ease- and Sakura didn't know how to shut up, constantly screaming at Naruto for ignoring the Uchiha.

Kakashi didn't really do much to fix this, choosing to simply let them work it out like the lazy jerk he is.

He didn't even really train them either. After seeing Naruto's strength, he chose to ignore him in favor of the Uchiha, stating that Naruto was "strong enough".

That had considerably widened the gap between the entire team, since Naruto started to see them as a hindrance mostly, because he was still required to come to train with the team.

Currently, they were painting someone's fence to complete their fiftieth D-rank mission. As much as they might dislike him, Sakura and Sasuke had to admit, Naruto's use of shadow clones were extremely useful.

They didn't realize just how useful it truly was though.

Kakashi did though, and with narrowed eyes, left silently in a puff of smoke.

* * *

Naruto lay in a clearing panting. His clothes were dirty, his sword was on the ground nearby, and his normally shiny, shoulder-length blonde hair was dirtied, sweat dripped down his face from the effort he'd been exerting only moments ago.

The field was marred with burns, gouges, a smashed boulder, and a few fallen trees that showed he'd been working for quite a while now.

Struggling to hit feet, he prepared to do whatever he'd been doing once more, but was stopped by the appearance of a certain cycloptic jounin.

Naruto gave Kakashi an annoyed glance. Neither looked very happy.

"What are you doing here Naruto?" The Silver haired jounin asked him, earning a scoff from the blonde.

"Why ask stupid questions Kakashi?" He remarked. "I'm training."

Kakashi narrowed his eyes at the boy. "You should be doing missions with the team." He said, glaring.

Naruto leveled a cold glare on the man, causing him to flinch slightly. "I have clones helping them, they should suffice." He said, annoyed at Kakashi for interrupting his training.

The jounin leveled a dark glare on the boy who didn't even slightly waver at the steadily increasing killing intent. The situation grew ever so tense as Kakashi finally spoke. "Do you think you're better than your team?" He asked dangerously.

Naruto laughed at that, severely surprising Kakashi. Naruto never showed any real emotion.

He abruptly stopped though, and suddenly gave Kakashi a taste of his own killing intent, causing the jounin to take a step back in suprise at the malicious intent that washed over him. "Don't ask stupid questions. I don't think I'm better than anyone. But you've become nothing more than a hindrance to me and my development as a ninja." He said, going back to that monotone that he usually held.

Kakashi glared at Naruto yet again. "Listen here genin-"

"No you listen scarecrow." The blonde interrupted. "You refuse to train me, opting to teach the Uchiha instead, and yet you expect me to come to a meeting everyday to watch you have a shadow clone drill me and Sakura on teamwork exercises while you blatantly devote your attentions to Sasuke." He hissed. "I should report you to the Hokage since you seem to fancy playing with our lives so much, neglecting us and wasting our time!"

Kakashi's eyes widened, seeing Naruto so pissed. From what he'd heard from his Kage, Naruto was a relatively friendly boy, if not a bit quiet. The boy that was currently chewing him out looked ready to slit his throat.

Naruto, -satisfied with himself- moved to pick up his sword and headband. "We're going to see the Hokage." He said, now back to normal.

Fear swept through Kakashi who realized just how bad the situation was getting. He had expected Sakura to be the most vocal of his treatment, but to accept it because she didn't have the real drive to train. He had failed to realize that Naruto wouldn't simply accept that treatment, and thus, would complain. He felt like an idiot.

Before he could say anything that might make Naruto change his mind, Naruto had moved in front of him, and, grabbing his shoulder, they both disappeared in a puff of smoke.

* * *

Kakashi's eyes refocused to see the questioning glance of Hiruzen.

Panic flooded Kakashi's mind, but he quickly quashed it and looked at Naruto. "How did you learn the body flicker technique?" He asked, but was ignored in favor of the aged Kage.

The blonde cleared his throat before speaking. "Hokage-sama, I don't usually ask for much do I?" He asked, earning a nod and a slightly suspicious look from the old man.

"No Naruto-kun, you don't usually ask for much." He said cautiously, not wanting to fall into a verbal trap.

Naruto sighed at the man. "I'm requesting a change in teams." He said bluntly.

The Sarutobi sweatdropped at the boy's sudden bluntness but then sighed in exasperation at the boy's request. "Why?" Was all he asked.

"Kakashi is incompetent." Naruto said, uncaring of the fact that the man was standing behind him, glaring at the back of his head. "He does nothing but train the Uchiha, while he has a clone lecture us on teamwork. Then he expects me to just accept that." He ranted to the Kage, who had now leveled a vehement glare on one of his most elite jounin, truly disappointed in him.

"I'll deal with it Naruto-kun." He said softly to the boy, who's eyes seemed to soften slightly, and allowed a small smile to show.

Mouthing a thank you, he abruptly left in a puff of smoke.

Hiruzen's eyes hardened as his killing intent hit Kakashi full blast, doubling the man over. "Let's talk Kakashi." He said calmly.

* * *

The following day was different from the past few weeks. Kakashi, after being thoroughly chewed out by the Hokage had been forced to not only teach all of his students, but to also help them with their D-rank missions, something which greatly amused the other jounin.

Naruto had continued to send clones on his D-rank missions though. Fortunately, Kakashi was still too scarred from being chewed out by the aged Hokage to really notice.

Currently, the three genin stood behind their jounin sensei, who was currently speaking to their Hokage about a change of pace.

Hiruzen looked at the genin standing behind Kakashi, deep in thought. Kakashi had requested a C-rank mission with his team. Probably so he'd not be forced to do any more D-ranks with them. Regardless, he had decided to think about it.

Sasuke looked ready.

Naruto looked more than ready.

Sakura on the other hand looked unsure, and that was not a good thing.

"I refuse your request." The old Kage said to the jounin, surprising him.

"May I ask why Hokage-sama?" The cycploptic jounin asked the old man, causing him to stare at Kakashi, unnerving the man.

"Kakashi." He began, causing the man to flinch. "What have you taught Sakura?" He asked, causing Sakura to jump in surprise.

As she was about to respond for Kakashi, Naruto shook his head, silencing her.

Immediately standing straighter, Kakashi began. "I've been trying to train her in chakra control exercises so she might be able to become a medic-nin, and I've been trying to condition her to properly so I could teach her taijutsu." He said professionally.

Hiruzen nodded at the man. Before something caught his attention. "You keep saying you been **trying**. It's either you're teaching this to her, or you're not. Which is it?" He asked calmly, getting a gulp from Kakashi.

"Although I've been trying, Sakura honestly pays more attention to Sasuke than her own training, having abandoned her own practices several times in favor of watching Sasuke." He said, causing the Sarutobi to look at Sakura.

"Is this true Sakura?" He asked, earning a soft 'yes' from the girl.

He then sent a hard glare at Kakashi yet again. "And you've just been letting this be?" He asked, causing Kakashi to take a step back in slight fear of the situation.

Thankfully for the man, Naruto stepped in. "Hokage-sama, he can't force her to learn. If she refuses to pay attention to his teachings, it's only natural that she'd fall behind." He said, earning a thankful look from the jounin.

Hiruzen sighed at that. "You are right Naruto-kun." He said. 'It's better than I thought though.' He thought to himself.

"Fine, I will allow you a C-rank mission." He said, earning a cheer from Sakura. "BUT." He began, immediately silencing her. "I expect you to try much harder from now on Sakura, or I will have you removed from the ninja ranks."

Sakura gasped at his threat, fearing the thought of not being on the same team as 'Sasuke-kun' and immediately responded: "Yes Hokage-sama!" to appease the old man.

The old monkey allowed a brief smile to play on his face before pressing a button under his table and saying: "Send him in."

Moments later, a drunken old man walked in and scowled at the genin in front of him. "This is my protection?" He asked angrily. "A bunch of snot nosed kids!"

Sakura looked ready to start wailing on him, and Sasuke was openly glaring. Naruto was being Naruto and was simply watching the man rant.

"I've got a pink haired girl who probably couldn't even protect herself, let alone another person (Sakura started screaming), an emo who seems to curve the wrong way (Sasuke was barely controlling his anger), and a creepy eyed pretty boy who probably couldn't even wield that sword on his back! Whatever, I'm Tazuna, the super awesome bridge builder! I expect you little super brats to provide me with super protection if you want your pay!" He said drunkenly.

Unlike his teammates, Naruto opted to simply walk out the door, saying to the old man. "I'll be at the gates, ready for departure in about an hour." Causing the old man to raise his opinion of the boy, as he was the only one that wasn't bitching about his criticism.

Kakashi chose to let him go, as that was exactly the time and place he was going to set the team's rendezvous point. 'How does he do that?' He thought to himself as he relayed the information to the team and left in a puff of smoke.

* * *

Now in the confines of his home, Naruto moved around at a rapid pace, a small smile on his face at the thought of going on his first C-rank mission. He quickly stocked his weapons in his weapon's pouch, and grabbed a small, lightweight back to hold the essentials in.

He adjusted his sword to his back, so that the bag would hide most of it, but, being relatively light, wouldn't hinder him much.

**(I'm just gonna explain this here, his sword isn't really anything too special. It's pretty much the sword that Sasuke uses in shippuden, but he won't be channeling chidory through it, and it's on his back instead of being on his waist.)**

Double checking to make sure he had all of his necessary supplies, he formed the tiger seal and was sucked into a spiraling void.

* * *

Reappearing in front of Konoha's gates in a distorted spiral, the blonde turned around to see a surprisingly early Kakashi with the client. Both of which were wide-eyed.

"You created a new body-flicker technique?" Kakashi asked, awed by the boy's genius.

Naruto shrugged and responded: "It wasn't that hard."

Kakashi just shook his head and looked to where Sasuke was walking from, and quite quickly if I might add. The cause of that was Sakura who was hanging off his arm as he tried to shake her off.

Kakashi smiled at the two and made no move to help them.

Naruto, deciding to straighten things out before they set out, chose to address it. And with an exaggerated cough, got their attention.

"Sakura, you're annoying him, let him go." He said sternly, leaving no room for argument.

Sakura looked depressed and very, **very** slowly let go of the Uchiha, who shook her off of him the second she loosened her grasp.

Sasuke gave Naruto a slightly appreciative look, for helping him, before it went back to an angry scowl as he realized who he was thanking.

Naruto ignored him in favor of the client, who looked slightly less drunk than last time. Reaching into his equipment pouch, he pulled out a red pill and gave it to the man, earning him a confused look from the man. "Tazuna-san, you're drunk, if only slightly less so. That'll help clear it out of your system, because we are not protecting a drunken client. We need you to be alert too, because if we tell you to get down, and you react too slowly, you'll die." He said bluntly, eliciting a sweatdrop from everyone around him.

Tazuna looked at the pill for a moment before shrugging and taking it. Popping it in his mouth, and washing it down with liquor, which made even Naruto face vault. "What?" The man asked indignantly. "I needed something to wash it down with!"

Naruto shook his head and simply looked to Kakashi for instruction. "What are your orders?"

Kakashi looked thoughtful for a moment. "Alright my cute little genin." This earned a glare from Sasuke and Sakura. "We're going to take a diamond formation. Sasuke, you take the right. Sakura, you get left. Naruto, you take the front, and tell me if you catch anything suspicious. I'll take the rear in unlikely case that we're ambushed."

The three nodded and took their respective positions, forming what would look like a diamond with a dot in the middle from a bird's eye view.

The walk seemed rather uneventful. Sakura entertained herself by asking Tazuna questions about wave, to which he haughtily answered, jumping at the chance to boast about his country. Sasuke chose to brood, mostly glaring at the back of Naruto's head. Kakashi read his porn, but stayed alert. Naruto's eyes darted back and forth, taking in the scenery and identifying all forms of life that crossed his eyes so that they wouldn't be successfully ambushed.

It was about four hours into their trip that Naruto noticed something strange. He quickly looked to Kakashi who nodded, signifying he'd noticed it too.

There was a puddle of water in the middle of the dirt road, yet it hadn't rained in weeks. What was stranger was that there were three sources of chakra hiding in the water. The blonde immediately recognized one as a genjutsu, and discretely broke it, allowing him to get a better look at the other two forms of chakra, which were people.

Throwing some hand signs behind his back for Kakashi to see, he continued to walk, already knowing what Kakashi wanted him to do.

Passing the puddle, he silently drew his sword and began to focus his chakra. He intended to finish them quickly.

As soon as Kakashi passed the puddle, two men with clawed gauntlets, connected by bladed chains rose up, and quickly surrounded the cycloptic jounin, ensnaring him in their chain. With a dark chuckle, one of them said "One down." and they pulled. The chain tightened harshly and ripped Kakashi apart, killing him.

Sakura gasped, tears falling down her cheeks and screamed for the man, unfortunately getting their attention. They surrounded her next, the chains already surrounding her.

Naruto, thinking quickly, threw his sword, pinning one of the blades to a tree, and stopping them in their tracks.

He looked to the Uchiha and yelled for him. "Sasuke!"

The Uchiha nodded, knowing what to do, and appeared on their still connected arms before they could dislodge themselves, surprising them. Gripping the gauntlets for support, he stunned them with a perfectly executed mule kick. The two assassins quickly recovered, however, and managed to disconnect their gauntlets, allowing them to move. One ran around, aiming at Sakura again, and another went straight for Tazuna, who had no one to protect him.

Naruto disappeared in a burst of speed, getting in front of the two and pushing the man's attacking arm up, throwing him off balance. Quickly forming the tiger seal, a ripple-eyed bull appeared in a small puff of smoke at the assassin's side. Bursting out of the smoke, it charged him at incredible speeds and rammed into him with the force of a freight train, actually making a shock-wave. The cracking noise that followed got the other nin's attention, who turned just in time to see his brother rocket away from the summon, and smash into a tree, dead before impact.

"Meizou!" He screamed for his brother, and throwing his attention off from the targets, allowing Kakashi to come up and knock him out with a swift chop to the neck.

Sakura cried in joy at seeing her sensei wasn't dead, but upon seeing his disappointed look, quickly deflated.

Kakashi looked at the two males of the team. "Good job Naruto at protecting Sakura. Your quick thinking may have saved her life, and I'm proud of you for getting rid of the enemy without hesitation, like a true ninja should." He said, smiling at the blonde, though the only indication of this was his eye, which had curved into a "U". You too Sasuke, in cooperating with Naruto to get those two away from Sakura. I'm proud of you too."

He turned to Sakura, who gulped. "Sakura, I'm very disappointed in you. At the first sign of danger, you froze up, and Naruto and Sasuke had to risk their necks to protect you. Naruto especially, for having to protect you **and **the bridge builder." He said sternly, causing Sakura to look down ashamed. "I understand you were afraid, but if you didn't think you were ready for this, why didn't you say so?" He asked, more softly than before.

Sakura didn't answer, causing Kakashi to sigh and glare at Tazuna. "We need to talk."

* * *

Having elicited information about the current situation from Tazuna, the team learned about Gatou's business, and were informed of the fact that he'd been sucking Wave country dry for years, and that a C-rank mission was the only mission that even the Daiyamo could afford. They were currently discussing the next course of action.

"I think we should continue." Sasuke stated, getting a thankful look from the bridge builder, and a starry-eyed look from Sakura.

"Me too!" She immediately spoke up, getting narrowed eyes from their sensei, who looked to Naruto.

"What about you Naruto?" He asked, assuming Naruto would say the same, but asking anyways.

Naruto turned his frost-blue eyes to the jounin, and said "We should go back.", shocking everyone.

"What! Why?" Tazuna asked. The fate of his country could be lying in this boy's hands.

Kakashi couldn't decide if he was proud, or disappointed in his sensei's son.

Sasuke looked livid, but Sakura was the most vocal.

"Naruto you idiot! Why would you turn down such an opportunity? I know! You're just afraid of being shown up by Sasuke-kun, is that it!" She ranted to the boy, who simply stared at her, immediately shutting her up.

"You're both naive." He said calmly. "We no nothing of the situation, we've been lied to. We are not strong enough to take on a mission like this, which currently borders on an A-rank mission. Our best choice of action is to take the bridge builder back to the village, and allow him to negotiate a price with the Hokage, lest we get both ourselves, and the client killed." He said wisely.

Sasuke scoffed. "You're just afraid, aren't you Uzamaki? You coward."

Naruto looked at him and said something that shut him up. "I'm a ninja. I have no honor, and I have no morals. All that matters is the paycheck, and the village. I am unwilling to face a situation that is nearly impossible, and risk not only my life, but also my team's for the sake of another country. Even with a team of experienced chuunin, the outcome would be bleak. I a killer, a thief, and a coward. And I'm okay with that." He said, earning wide-eyes from Tazuna and his peers.

Kakashi stared at the boy, surprised. He truly knew what it meant to be a ninja. "So you think we should go back Naruto?" He asked the boy, getting a nod.

Tazuna started to cry. "Please! I beg you! I don't have any time to spare. If I waste any time, Gatou could destroy the bridge!" He said to the blonde.

"Then make it again." The boy said coldly. The Uzamaki turned around to head back to the village, but Sasuke spoke.

"Those who abandon the mission are trash, but those who abandon their comrades are worse than trash! Isn't that what you said Kakashi! I'm not going back until this mission is completed! You can go, but you'll have abandoned the mission, **and **your comrades!"

Kakashi stopped in his tracks, inspired to continue the mission.

Tazuna looked hopeful.

Sakura had stars in her eyes from Sasuke's little speech.

Naruto turned to the Uchiha. "This can be considered insubordination, which you can be executed for. And don't think being the last Uchiha will protect you from everything." He said cryptically.

Sasuke glared at Naruto. "If I can't risk my life here, how can I risk my life hunting down and killing my brother."

Naruto sighed. "That holds no weight here Sasuke, I don't give a damn about your clan." He turned to Kakashi. "Our votes mean nothing. We do what our sensei thinks we should do."

Kakashi looked thoughtful, remembering Sasuke's words. "We will continue the mission." He said, getting a cheer from Sakura, a satisfied look from Sasuke, and an annoyed look from Naruto.

Tazuna wouldn't stop thanking the jounin for agreeing to help them, and apologized repeatedly for lying to them.

* * *

From then on, the travel was almost completely uneventful. They didn't encounter any bandits, and they slowly but surely entered wave country, traveling in the day-time, and sleeping in the night.

They traveled on a boat that would take them to the outskirts of the wave village, a small place that had once been a hot spot for trade.

Just as the village became visible to everyone, Naruto's senses went crazy, and he threw a kunai into a nearby bush, startling everyone. He was immediately next to the bush, and had spread it, revealing a frightened rabbit.

Sakura started screaming. "Naruto you idiot! You almost killed this poor, adorable rabbit! How could you!" She continued to rant as both Naruto and Kakashi recognized an oddity in it. 'Its coat is white, but it's the middle of summer, which means it was bred in captivity.'

Naruto looked at Sakura. "Shut up." He said stoically, only causing her to scream louder about his disrespect. "SHUT UP!" He yelled this time, causing the girl to immediately stop talking, finally allowing him to hear the whirling sound that was coming from their right.

**"GET DOWN!"** Both he and Kakashi said at the same time. Kakashi tackled Tazuna to the ground. Naruto swept Sakura's feet from under her, tripping her, and getting low enough to avoid the blade that would've killed them all while Sasuke had just dove to the ground himself.

The rabbit scurried away just as a man appeared on the blade. He had two arm warmers on his wrists, wore no shirt, and had his headband turned sideways. The most noticeable feature, however, was his lack of eyebrows.

Kakashi stood up quickly. "Zabuza Momochi of the hidden mist. I'm surprised you've lowered yourself to working for scum like Gatou." He said casually, getting a scoff from the man.

"Sharingan Kakashi eh? No wonder the Demon Brothers lost." The man said, mostly to himself.

Sakura looked ready to correct him, and inform him that it was Naruto and Sasuke that did most of the work, but a glare from Naruto silenced her.

"I see you've decided to mentor some snot-nosed brats eh?" He said, getting Sasuke to glare in anger.

Naruto finally spoke up. "Sasuke, Sakura, tighten the defense. Do not waver, and do not leave the bridge builder or you'll definately die."

Zabuza gave the boy an appraising look. "Well at least one of them's competent." He said, disregarding the other two to take a better look at the blonde, and enraging Sasuke, who stupidly charged the nuke-nin, only to be violently dragged back by Naruto.

"What did I just say?" He asked stoically, further enraging the Uchiha. "If you don't calm down, I'll slit your throat myself. You're becoming a hindrance." This immediately pacified Sasuke.

Zabuza snapped his fingers. "You the fourth's son right?" He said, recognizing the boy. "It'll be fun killing you."

Naruto looked to Kakashi. "I'll protect the bridge builder with my life, but you have to protect us with yours." He said calmly, getting a nod from Kakashi.

Zabuza suddenly charged at the boy, ripping his blade from the tree. "Screw that! I'll end this quickly!" He yelled, moving toward the group at insane speeds that no average gennin should be able to track. So he was quite surprised when the boy moved to intercept him, drawing his own blade and putting up a guard. He was thrown back, but flipped and recovered in the air, turning around to block a strike sent by the man and skidding back from his insane strength. He quickly regained his footing, however, and jumped into the air, and throwing the nuke-nin off balance. Zabuza spun once, and brought his blade up to kill the boy who clashed blades with him again.

Falling to the ground, Naruto attempted to sweep the man's feet from under him, and was dodged. Throwing a kunai, which was blocked, he jumped into the air again -something that Zabuza barely caught from the hole in his blade- and showed Zabuza that hole was a weakness. When Zabuza swung to kill him, the boy threw his blade through the hole, pinning the blade.

Landing perfectly on the hilt, Naruto slammed a kunai in his head, and grabbed his blade, immediately moving back to the group, already knowing it was a water clone. No jounin-ranked ninja worth his pay would be that easy.

He was right, and made it in time to intercept the man who had been about to attack Sakura. This gave Kakashi the opening needed to get behind Zabuza and stab him in the back, causing the man to go wide-eyed, and promptly disperse into water. He appeared behind Kakashi and abruptly cut him in two, causing him to turn into water as well.

Feeling cold steel at his neck, he chuckled. "Not bad Kakashi, to copy my technique, even while hindered by the mist. But-" He dispersed yet again, and appeared behind Kakashi who looked surprised. "It's not good enough!" He yelled, swinging his sword.

Kakashi ducked the attack, but wasn't prepared when the nuke-nin dug his blade into the ground for leverage, and kicked him in the face.

Chasing after him, he stopped and looked down to see the blades that were embedded into the ground and realized they had been thrown by the blonde to slow him down. He realized why when a wind dragon came down destroyed where he'd previously been standing, and almost killing him, had he not quickly moved to the water.

Getting behind Kakashi, he made a water clone, which trapped the man in a water prison.

'Crap' was the single thought that ran through everyone's head.

"Run!" Kakashi screamed to the kids. "Take Tazuna and get out of here!"

Naruto shook his head. "It's a water clone holding you Kakashi. He'd just chase us down and kill us anyways." He turned to his peers. "Guard the bridge builder with everything you've got."

Sasuke and Sakura both nodded, realizing that now was not the time to question him.

His ripple-like eyes seemed to glow with power as he began to focus his chakra and prepare for the hardest fight of his life.

Zabuza seemed to finally notice the boy's strange eyes. His eyes went wide with shock as he realized how dangerous this boy was, and was glad he hadn't underestimated him by having a clone kill them. Deciding to take the boy completely serious, he rushed him, hoping to catch him off guard.

Naruto's eyes widened and everything slowed down to him. He was easily able to dodge the man's strikes with his extreme speed, and blocked what ever he couldn't risk.

Clashing blades with him, he knew he'd be overpowered, and almost immediately moved out of the way, letting Zabuza's blade hit the ground without the previous support, and throwing him off balance. Not wanting to waste the opportunity, he summoned his trusty bull who tried to ram the man, but he wasn't a jounin for nothing, and managed to recollect himself and dodge.

The bull almost immediately dispersed upon failure.

"So you're able to perform speed-summons?" He asked, impressed with the boy.

Sakura chose to voice her question. "What's that?"

Naruto sighed at having to explain something in the middle of a battle, but realized he could use it to his advantage, and began explaining. "It's a way to summon creatures without seals, blood sacrifice, and far less than the the normally required chakra. Unfortunately, the summon can't be sustained for long. Only about 3-5 seconds, and must be used quickly."

Having used this time to channel his chakra, he impaled his sword into the ground and clapped his hands together. A salamander appeared behind him, and shot a stream of fire at the nuke-nin, who jumped away from it. Naruto slammed his hands onto the ground, causing a large wolf-like creature with wings to appear and attack him.

Having attacked in a straightforward fashion, Zabuza used the opening to stab it with his sword. He was thoroughly surprised when it split into two, one biting his leg, and the other getting his sword arm, causing his blade to fall to the ground with a 'clang'.

Making a shadow clone to deal with Zabuza's water clone, which was currently trying to drown Kakashi in its water prison, he came foward and impaled Zabuza through the abdomen with his sword, earning a gasp of pain from the man. Kicking up the nin's blade, he grabbed it, and Sparta-kicked the man in the chest, throwing him back. The wolves became one, one being absorbed into the other, and disappeared in a puff of smoke. Naruto, seeing Zabuza getting up from his kick, threw the over sized butcher knife at the man, impaling him through the shoulder, and pinning him there.

Kakashi landed next to him, Naruto's clone having dealt with the water clone by simply lighting an explosive tag near them, the prison protecting Kakashi.

"Good job Naruto." He said, slightly out of breath from almost drowning.

Naruto's frost-blue eyes looked at him. "Thanks."

As Naruto moved to finish off Zabuza, two senbon flew from the trees and struck the man in the neck, killing him. Kakashi checked his pulse, confirming the man's death, but Naruto's eyes were narrowed in suspicion.

A ninja came down from his hiding spot, and bowed to the leaf-nin. "Thank you for your assistance, I've been tracking Momochi-san for quite some time now."

It was Naruto who responded. "You were there the whole time. Why did you only move to kill him when we moved to kill him?" He asked, causing Kakashi grow suspicious of the hunter-nin as well.

The ninja stood straight and responded "I was taking aim."

While this satisfied Kakashi, Naruto remained suspicious. "You were taking aim eh? You use senbon, which means you have impressive accuracy. Why would it take so long for a hunter-nin who kills with senbon to take aim on an unmoving target?" He asked, once again rising suspicion, and causing the hunter-nin to tense.

Naruto's eyes narrowed. "I think you're lying." was all he said before he rushed foward at incredible speeds, making a clone to begin the assault.

The hunter-nin blurred out of movement, and suddenly the clone was destroyed, and he was in a tree, Zabuza's arm over his shoulder.

Sasuke and Sakura gasped in shock at the false hunter-nin's speed, and were even more thoroughly suprised when Naruto rushed foward at equal speeds, only to be sent rocketing back from a perfectly executed kick that had him smashing into the ground with incredible force. What was even more impressive was that this was done while still holding Zabuza.

The false hunter formed a seal and disappeared in a swirl of wind just as Naruto managed to shrug off the injury.

Kakashi gave Naruto a once over to make sure he was okay, but then looked to the rest of the team. Nodding to them, he finally looked to Tazuna. "We should get you home before we encounter any more dangers."

The old man nodded and began to lead the way as Naruto sheathed his sword and started to follow.

* * *

When the team finally entered the village, they were shocked at the sight. Every person they came across was dressed in torn rags, and looked underfed. They were also dirty and some had bruises and cuts littering their bodies as signs of abuse. Whether it was from Gatou's men, or each other, no one knew.

Tazuna quickly led them to a small house and hurried in with them. As team seven walked into the house, they heard a cry of "Father!" and suddenly, a beautiful dark haired woman who looked to be in her early thirties had wrapped her arms around his neck, and was hugging him tightly.

"Tsunami! I missed you dearly." The man said, happiness reflecting in his eyes. He gestured to them. "These are the super ninja that protected me on my way back home!" He said.

Tsunami smiled at them. "Thank you for protecting my father. I am in your debt." She said, grateful for their assistance.

Sasuke smirked proudly, earning a sigh from Naruto who nodded to Kakashi to introduce them.

Kakashi took the hint easily and stepped forward. "I am Kakashi Hatake. These are my students: Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura." He said, pointing at each respectively.

Sakura waved.

Sasuke grunted in affirmation.

Naruto leveled a cold look on her, -unnerving the woman- before a small smile graced his face as he bowed. "It's a pleasure to meet you Tsunami-san." He said kindly, getting shocked looks from Sasuke and Sakura since he was never like that.

Naruto looked at them, confused. "What?"

It was Sakura who spoke. "You smiled! You were nice! What's going on?" She yelled.

Naruto sweat-dropped. "I just don't like you." He said bluntly, causing the two to face-plant into the wooden floor.

He then turned to Tazuna. "Putting that aside, we need exact details of the situation. We will protect you until the bridge is complete. Once you have finished it, our mission is completed, and it will be your turn to fulfill your end of the contract." He said, getting a nod from the man.

He then turned to Tsunami. "Do you have any place that we could stay?"

She nodded in affirmation, and motioned for them to follow her. Leading them up to a room, she opened the door, revealing a small but homely room. "The males will sleep here. I will share my room with Sakura-san." She said, earning a wail from Sakura who wouldn't be able to sleep with her "Sasuke-kun" but getting a look of thanks from the Uchiha.

Kakashi thanked the woman before turning to his genin. "We have training to do."

* * *

The next few days were spent training. Kakashi had decided to train Sakura separately from Naruto and Sasuke so she wouldn't be distracted. It worked mostly, but then that left the problem of Naruto and Sasuke.

Sasuke saw Naruto as his rival, and Naruto didn't give a damn. This led to conflict between the two where Sasuke would try to outdo him, and Naruto would beat him without even really trying, further frustrating the Uchiha.

As Kakashi watched Naruto meditate, and Sasuke practice his phoenix flower jutsu, Sasuke suddenly had the 'great' idea to launch it at Naruto.

Naruto -without even opening his eyes- summoned his panda defense, to which the fireballs simply collided harmlessly with, not even scorching the thing.

Sasuke grit his teeth in anger. "Uzamaki!" He yelled, trying to get his attention.

Naruto, eyes still closed, responded. "What do you want now?"

The Uchiha glared at him. "Fight me."

Naruto finally opened an eye to look at him. "No." He said, enraging him, before he smirked.

"What's wrong? Scared?" He taunted, but then got pissed when the blonde ignored him for a few seconds before responding. "I'm busy, and you're not worth the effort. At least, not to me you're not."

Sasuke charged him, hoping to beat him into the ground, but was stopped when a tiger summon appeared in a poof of smoke and tackled him to the ground, teeth inches away from his face.

Dispelling the summon, Naruto looked to Kakashi who had merely looked on amusedly. By now, this had happened so often that the jounin never bothered to interrupt it. He knew Naruto wouldn't kill the boy for something so mundane.

Naruto looked to Kakashi. "I'm going to train alone now Kakashi, okay?" Getting a nod from Kakashi, he was sucked into a spiraling void.

Reappearing in a wide clearing, Naruto drew his sword, and almost instantly, ten clones popped up out of nowhere. Already knowing what to do, they all came at him at once.

* * *

An attractive girl -who looked to be about fifteen years of age- walked into a clearing, loving the smell of nature. She was pale and had on a pink dress that, although modest, complimented her curves greatly. If one were to merely glance at her, one would first notice the wrappings that covered her eyes.

She looked around, apparently unhindered by the wrappings as she walked further into the clearing, and noticed someone not too far from her current position. Moving closer, she recognized him as the one that had fought her master not too long ago. His face looked serene as he slept, his blonde hair and chiseled face giving an almost ethereal look. These thoughts elicited a small blush from the girl. She noticed the cuts all over his body as signs that he'd been training pretty hard, and realized that this moment of weakness would be a perfect time to get rid of him, so her master wouldn't need to.

The thing that stopped her, however, was the bird that was perched in a tree nearby that appeared to be staring at her. The ripple-like eyes shocked her, and she realized that perhaps this boy wasn't as defenseless as she thought. Not wanting to risk it, she moved toward him and shook him awake.

She was thankful she'd chosen to do so because the second her hand touched his shoulder, his eye snapped open and he looked at her.

Feeling somewhat nervous, she said the first thing that came to mind. "If you sleep out here, you might catch a cold."

Naruto eyed her for a second before smiling. "Thanks for your concern but I have a really strong immune system."

She smiled as well. "Are you a ninja?" She asked, not seeing his headband anywhere.

Getting a nod from the boy she asked another question. "Were you training out here? You look pretty strong already."

The blonde laughed, his voice soft, but containing power that was rarely seen in people his age. "There's always room for improvement miss-"

"Haku." She finished for him. Deciding to mess with him a bit, she continued. "And i'm a boy."

Naruto didn't miss a beat. "No you're not, only I'm allowed to be that cute and stay male." He said jokingly, getting a blush from her.

They both laughed. "Are you blind?" Naruto asked her, noting the wrappings over her eyes.

She shook her head. "My eyes are too sensitive, so I wear these to protect them from the light." She explained.

Naruto nodded in understanding. "And because your eyesight is so sensitive, you can see through them, right?" He asked, getting a nod from her. "Yes, that's right." She replied.

Seeing an opportunity, she decided to note his strange eyes. "Your eyes are kind've weird." She said, getting an amused look from the boy.

"That's what they all say." He said, chuckling. "I'd explain it, but it's a village secret." He said, to which she nodded.

Her eyes widened. "I never got your name." She said to him.

"Naruto Uzamaki." He informed her.

She stared at him for a moment. "Do you have anything precious to you?" She asked.

He thought for a moment. "Yeah, I have something very precious to me." He said, thinking about the army of summons at his disposal. They were all cared about him, and were willing to sacrifice themselves for him, without hesitation.

Haku smiled. "I believe that a person is truly able to become strong when they are fighting to protect something precious."

Naruto decided it was time to drop the bombshell. "So that's why you were able to do what you did? When Zabuza was in danger?" He asked calmly, but nonetheless causing her to freak out, and jump back, senbon drawn, and settled in an unknown taijutsu stance.

Naruto didn't even move from his spot. "We're not enemies at the moment." He said, surprising her, and causing her to slightly lower her guard. He sighed. "I could've killed you at any moment, from the time you entered the field actually, to right now." He said, pointing in several locations which revealed extremely poisonous snakes, the exact shade of the grass.

She put her weapons away at that. "Please understand that I don't want to have to fight you, but Zabuza-sama needs the money."

Naruto nodded. "I know. He gave you a purpose, right?" He asked knowingly, getting a nod from her.

"You remind me of myself." He said, finally standing up, and dispelling his summons.

Haku looked deep in thought before she began removing the wrappings over her eyes. "We're much more alike than you think."

As the wrappings fell, Naruto's eyes widened.

There, looking back at him was a pair of purple, ripple-like eyes. "I am number two."

* * *

**And cut!**

**Whew, that's took longer than I expected.**

**I originally intended to make it longer, but I didn't want to put the whole wave arc in a single chapter.**

**I hope you like what I did there, and I intend to update again sometime next week.**

**Thanks for waiting, and thanks for reading.**

**Until next time!**


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